Apple Mail rules in an IMAP environment

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Level 1

8 points

Apple Mail rules in an IMAP environment

Hi Folks,

I have set up several rules in Apple Mail but it seems they are only applied to brand new incoming mail.

That renders the whole feature useless on IMAP if you check any email on your phone before booting up your mac that day. Also, if other people have access to the same mail account and they check mails before your mac does, it means those mails aren't flagged as new any longer, and thus won't see any rules applied.

It appears the whole feature got stuck in the days of pop mail where a single mailbox had a single user with a single device. Is there any way to make it useful in 2021 or am I beating a dead horse?

MacBook

Posted on Feb 19, 2021 10:39 AM

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Answer 1

steve626

Level 6

15,077 points

Feb 19, 2021 11:32 AM in response to NvE_Info

You can select messages (including "select all" in a mailbox, or maybe even select an entire mailbox [I haven't tested selecting entire mailboxes yet]) and right click and choose "Apply Rules" and it will apply the rules regardless of whether the message is designated as new or read.

Also, Outlook rules work similarly, it's not just Apple Mail.

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Answer 2

steve626

Level 6

15,077 points

Feb 22, 2021 4:50 PM in response to NvE_Info

You do point out some ways for Apple to improve their tools. Or at least give users the choice between the current behavior and the behavior you are looking for.

If you are having to manually run the rule, you can apply it just to the most recent messages at least.

Another approach, depending on your email provider, it to set up rules on your email provider's web interface, so the rules are applied at the source and then will be equally applied to all devices accessing the mail.

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Answer 3

NvE_Info Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 22, 2021 9:16 AM in response to steve626

Thanks Steve,

that would mean I need to manually run the filter run across my three mailboxes every day, which is a bit tedious but might work. Seems like a bit of overkill for the system though, I don't need those rules to go over the same 40,000 messages every single day, I only need the lastest 40 checked and sorted :-)

I find it really weird that Apple isn't addressing this, it seems like an issue that prevents a smooth experience across devices - something they seem to be investing a lot of energy into otherwise. Heaps of users must have run into this over the last couple years if they started checking mail on their iPhones as well. And you can't even set it up the other way around because iOS doesn't offer proper filter rules to start with.

Well, any additional ideas would be much appreciated!

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Apple Mail rules in an IMAP environment

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